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A few months ago, I was asked to compete in the Red Bull Canvas Cooler competition. Since I'm not your everyday artist, I decided to think outside the box on this challenge, literally. We were given a small cooler in the shape of a cube and asked to turn into our own, unique design. Since my street art work primarily works in 3D space I decided to transform this piece into a sculpture instead of sticking to flat 2D surface.

It’s no secret that the Free Library of Philadelphia does more than just lend books — the library’s 54 branches host GED classes, author events, Scrabble tournaments, and an annual book festival, among other events. This summer, it’s also one of 108 sites nationwide to host a Maker Corps program, which aims to expose youth and families to maker-oriented projects with the goal of increasing creative problem-solving skills, confidence, and leadership skills. The program and its umbrella organization Maker Education Initiative were founded in part by the people responsible for MAKE Magazine, so that should give an inkling to the kind of projects they’ll be working on.

The Free Library’s group operates under the moniker Maker Jawn (with a logo that doesn’t get nearly enough facetime) and they were also one of 16 organizations nationwide to win a grant from the Project:Connect Summer Youth Programming Competition. NextFab is especially proud of the Maker Jawn folks since one of them is former employee Ryan Barnes, who came to NextFab through Drexel’s Co-op program. Since Ryan spent his time here working on electronics projects and helping to organize our kid-oriented Maker Field Day at the Franklin Institute, we’re thrilled his new project combines these interests.

Maker Jawn’s Project:Connect project helps youth at five Free Library locations design and create electronic, paper-based message cards that will be combined into an interactive electronic mosaic mural, but the Maker Corps hosts all sorts of other projects throughout the summer, such as a balloon zipline, e-textiles and marionette puppets. The project culminates Saturday, Aug. 17 when the digital and physical mural will be displayed as part of the city-wide Philadelphia Maker Celebration.

The Free Library of Philadelphia is hosting a city-wide maker celebration on Saturday, Aug. 17 and there’s only two days left to get your entry in! Fifty entrants will be selected and given half of an eight-foot table to display their creations, along with a $50 Visa gift card. The Philadelphia Maker Celebration ties in with the Free Library’s Maker Corps, who are spending the summer working with youth in five Free Library branches to create an interactive, electronic mosaic mural that will be displayed at this festival.

NextFab member and artist Jeanne Jaffe has utilized much of NextFab’s tools, equipment, and expertise in her art installations.

Little Red Riding Hood as a Crime Scene

In June 2011, Jaffe reconfigured the fable of Little Red Riding Hood as a psychic crime scene set in the Pine Grove section of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, located in Roxborough, Philadelphia. She explained her intent was to examine civilizations’ crimes against nature, reversing the roles of victim and victimizer and commenting on human greed.

"For this installation, I modeled a pair of small legs that I had cast in resin. At NextFab, I scanned them, enlarged them, and used the CNC router to make them about 4 feet tall out of laminated MDF board."

T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets

Jaffe exhibited an interactive sound and motion installation at Philadelphia’s Marginal Utility Gallery last fall, working with NextFab’s Ross Kessler to incorporate Arduino, sensors, and other electronics into the work.

Jaffe is currently working at NextFab on a new project about Nikola Tesla that will be exhibited at Rowan University Gallery in Glassboro, N.J. in spring 2015.

Nic Darling, the Executive VP of Major League Ultimate (MLU), reached out to NextFab Studio to design and build a trophy to award the winner of the 2013 MLU Championship Game. Nic then met with Tom Welsh, the leader of the contract services team and ironed out the budget and schedule. Just a few weeks later, NextFab produced a trophy that could hold its own next to trophies like the Stanley Cup or NFL Championship trophy.

Similar to many of NextFab’s custom design jobs, the process was divided into a conceptual phase, followed by a detailed design and fabrication phase. Drawing from within NextFab’s team of designers, several conceptual designs were created, and Edwin Rivera, NextFab’s Industrial Designer, gave them life with a set of sketches. Just a few days later, Nic chose his favorite design, and the team set down the path of making it a reality. The trophy includes a section that has the entire team members’ names engraved. The design allows for an additional section to be inserted each year for the winning team.

The trophy is a full size engraved polished aluminum disc atop a pair of crossed arcs. The arcs were cut on NextFab’s Flow water jet and the disc was turned on our Haas CNC lathe. Engraving would be done on the Shopbot CNC router. Finishing included welding, grinding, sanding, and polishing operations. After the final assembly of the trophy onto a custom wooden base, it was ready.

Nic picked up the finished trophy to present at the championship. During the championship game, Tom tuned in to the broadcast to watch the game and see the awards ceremony. Tom said, “Seeing the the trophy being handed to the winning players who were gushing with pride in front of the cheering crowd was an emotional experience. It made me proud to be a part of NextFab.”

Do you have what it takes to Throwdown?

Two of the best things in life: making things with your hands and great beer. We’ve found a way to combine both into one glorious competition! Philadelphia’s own NextFab Studio and Yards Brewing Company are teaming up for the Tap Handle Throwdown! This contest, which is part of the 2013 DesignPhiladelphia Festival, is designed to show off the creativity of beer fans across this great city as you compete to design and build a unique tap handle worthy of dispensing Yard’s finest to the awestruck drinkers at bars all across Philadelphia.

Your winning tap handle would not only garner the adoration of your fellow Philadelphians but you can win some pretty awesome stuff along with it: a gift card from Yards, an afternoon at the Yards tasting room, and six month NextFab membership for starters.

You can find out everything and anything you need to about the throwdown here.

Delicious Inspiration!

To get everyone in the right mindset for creating their tap handle masterpiece we will be holding this month’s NextFabulous Social at the Yard’s Tasting Room. There will be tours of the brewery, beer tastings, and happy hour specials. Everyone is invited to belly up to the bar and learn more about Philadelphia’s favorite craft brewery.

The beer will be flowing Thursday July 18th from 6pm to 9pm. You can rsvp for the event here.

Do you need a space to hold meetings? If you are a NextFab member we have a great solution for you.

We are now offering our members the ability to reserve the NextFab conference room that is conveniently located above reception and next to our classroom. The 15’ x 26’ conference room can be reserved by members in two hour blocks for $100. We also have breakfast and lunch catering available for an additional fee.

The conference room is outfitted with a HD projector and screen, speakerphone, WiFi, 4’ x 16’ conference table, seating for 25, and a side table for refreshments and demonstrations.

The reservations schedule can be found here. Reservations must be made in advance and must be approved by management.

My name is Connor McGoey. I am an industrial designer and I work at NextFab as a technical supervisor. Here is one of my personal projects I’ve recently completed at NextFab.

Coffee table built from material that had been re-claimed and intended to be re-purposed.

The legs were salvaged from a discarded kitchen/dining room table. I used a chop saw to cut the legs to a desired length. I then marked and cut out notches for mounting the legs to the side of the table using a combination square for measurement. The marked cuts were cut using the band saw with use of the fence to achieve a strait cut. The legs were attached using wood glue and brad nails.

The body of the table is constructed of chipboard commonly used in exterior building construction prior to insulation and siding. The 1/2” piece of chipboard was cut to lengths using the Sawstop table saw. Construction of the body table was assembled using wood glue and 1” brad nails. Lastly the table top/window frame was sanded using and palm sander with an 80 grit sanding pad to remove decades of old paint. The top was mounted using hinges at the rear as well tension hinges mounted on the left and right hand exterior sides to prevent the lid from slamming shut. The piece will be finished with a nature nut oil to provide the lowest possible impact to the environment in it’s continuation toward it’s next life cycle.

For the past four years NextFab has hosted Philadelphia Futures’ robotics team. The team consists of six students who have the opportunity to learn science and engineering principles through the design and fabrication of a submersible vehicle. From the end of January to the end of April, students visit NextFab once a week to work with our staff of engineers on their project. Students get one-on-one instruction on principles such as buoyancy, drag, surface area, velocity, and torque. Students also learn proper engineering design technique, and learn the process of designing a prototype, fabricating a prototype, and refining that prototype to create a finished product.

This year the team did very well in the competition, which was held at Drexel University’s pool on the 27th of April. This year’s competition consisted of two events: an obstacle course, and a ring-removal challenge. Team “Sedna Inc.” was able to remove five out of the twelve rings, and came in second place in their obstacle course heat – just a minute behind the fastest time. The team came in second place in both the spirit and sportsmanship categories, and received an honorable mention in the engineering notebook category.

Of the students in Philadelphia Future’s Sponsor A Scholar (SAS) program, 100% of seniors graduated in 2012, and 94% were accepted into college. Two students from last year’s team will be attending Drexel in the fall.

Before jumping in with the sharks, some of the most ambitious Shark Tank contestants stood in front of another fearsome group, our panel of expert judges. This week a handful of entrepreneurs and inventors had a chance to practice their pitch for a panel of expert judges from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern PA. Equipped with valuable feedback, a stronger spirit and some with VIP passes awarded by our judges the future Shark Tank contestants are well on the road to achieve their entrepreneurial dreams.

And the next step for all contestants is a 1-minute pitch to a member of the Casting Team from ABC. The best pitches will be selected for a more in-depth video interview with producers later in the day, and the chance to be on the show.

About this blog

Welcome to the NextFab Blog, where we discuss the ideas changing the world as we know it. Step inside the revolutionary world of 3D Printing technology, traditional and Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) machinery, innovation and imagination.